I was recently invited to host the Empowering the Modern Day xSP event.
The day was a gathering of IT Solution Providers, Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) along with some of the top vendors in their respective spaces.
We wanted this event to be different from the standard IT channel events, and I think we succeeded in making it a fun day for everyone involved!
The Empowering the Modern Day xSP event
The “Empowering the Modern Day xSP” event took place on March 23rd 2020 at the beautiful Sunset by Australasian in Manchester, UK.
The primary goal of the day was to have conversations that would help both the solution providers and vendors in attendance to grow their respective businesses and form stronger partnerships.
The secondary goal of the event was to have a fun day!
In my opinion, far too many IT events are dull and conservative.
Therefore, for this event, we wanted something upbeat, informal and that people would remember!
Take a look at this short overview of the day to see what I mean!
Live xSP Question and Answer
As we enjoyed some good food and drink, the conversation continued with a Q’n’A session.
I moderated a live question and answering session with a panel of vendor experts.
The vendors who we invited to participate were (click on the individual’s name to connect with them on LinkedIn):-
- Tim Swainson – Cloud and Service Provider, Sales Manager – Kemp Technologies
- Andy Bodgan – Head of UK SMB Channel, Kaspersky
- Olivia Donnell – EMEA Channel Director, StorageCraft
- Nick Kimber – Enterprise Account Manager, CommScope
- Jason Hill – Sales Director Europe, Exertis
I’ll give a lot of credit to the vendors involved.
Each of the vendor representatives gave me permission to ask them some very tough questions about what it means to be a good partner to modern-day xSPs!
Some of the questions we asked included:-
- What do vendors look for in a good solution provider partner?
- What do you, as a solution provider, want from a vendor?
- How can vendors support partners with trust, transparency and protection?
- What could vendors do to reduce the friction to you doing business with them?
- How do you play well with other vendors and what does that mean for the relationship with the MSP?
Kudos to everyone involved. The panel stood up straight and answered questions from our dining audience for almost 90-minutes!
Watch the Empowering the Modern Day xSP Question and Answer Session
You can footage from the Empowering the xSP Live question and answer session below.
If you want to jump to any of the specific time-stamped questions that the panel answered, then you can visit https://youtu.be/6DrYQVGId-I
Conclusion
This event was a collaboration between solution providers and vendor partners.
The goal was to hear both sides of the vendor/solution provider conversation and help forge stronger partnerships.
We also wanted to change the perception of IT channel events from being formal, dull affairs into lively conversations that everyone enjoys!
The feedback we got from attendees was overwhelmingly positive.
The Empowering the Modern Day xSP event took place in early March, just one week before the UK (and many other countries) went into lockdown.
The COVID-19 pandemic means that, at the time of writing, live events such as this one feel like they were a lifetime ago!
But, when live events do restart (and they will), I’d like to think that events such as Empowering the Modern Day xSP can raise the bar of what attendees can expect.
If you’d like to keep up to date on future events, then sign-up for my weekly MSP Insights email.
You can also check out my List of Awesome Events for MSPs.
What questions would you like to ask the vendor partners involved? Leave a comment below or get in touch — I’ll make sure to pass all your questions along and get back to you with answers.
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Richard Tubb is one of the best-known experts within the global IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) community. He launched and sold his own MSP business before creating a leading MSP media and consultancy practice. Richard helps IT business owner’s take back control by freeing up their time and building a business that can run without them. He’s the author of the book “The IT Business Owner’s Survival Guide” and writer of the award-winning blog www.tubblog.co.uk
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